Homunculus
In cognitive philosophy and philosophy of mind, the term “homunculus” refers to the idea that there is a being in our head which itself perceives and has experience. Let us then understand the work of Ramon Feller as a combination of individual forms, colors, materials, movements, processes in time and sounds. We would not normally consider these as very interesting, precisely because we already know them. We have quite concrete ideas stored in memory about for instance what a bent aluminum sheet looks like, what an electric engine sounds like, the way a tense or loose rope or the light from a data projector behave, the way a cursor moves on a screen. Then, however, a homunculus like the one mentioned starts to separate all these individually uninteresting parts of Ramon’s work and combines them to form Something. A Something we do not know yet, which we have not yet stored in our memory in some form. A Something which we decidedly want to learn about right from the first moment. In order to grasp this better we then start once again from separating the structures of form, color, movement and sound and notice that each of these individual aspects is placed very precisely and deliberately. We find out that each part which may have originally seemed uninspired play its role in the mechanism of the whole machinery. Although random chance and loss of control do often have their say, they are always a part of the system which was put into motion by its creator. Let us return to the homunculus — since it can also be seen from a different, historical point of view, namely as a being created by means of artificial (chemical) processes. The aforementioned putting into motion is in case of certain works of Ramon Feller something similar to an act of injecting lifeblood into them. Without this, the forms, colors, materials, but also movements, processes in time and sounds would have only negligible meaning.

from Goethe, Faust II

“It brightens, — see! Sure, now, my hopes increase
That if, from many hundred substances.
Through mixture— since on mixture all depends —
The human substance gently be compounded,
And by a closed retort surrounded,
Distilled, and fed, and slowly founded.
Then in success the secret labour ends.
‘Twill be ! the mass is working clearer I
Conviction gathers, truer, nearer!
The mystery which for Man in Nature lies
We dare to test, by knowledge led;
And that which she was wont to organise
We crystallise, instead.”

Simon Fahrni

Courtesy of Plusminusnula Gallery